As many as 39 questions were considered at the Municipal Council meeting on Monday, but it took less than two hours. Because most of the issues were discussed, so the decisions were made very quickly. However, there were also some issues that took much longer to consider and generated a lot of controversy.
The closure of the Sasnava school was approved
As expected, a lot of discussions, deliberations, and various proposals were made regarding the reorganization of the municipal network of general education schools. The plans to close the Sasnava Primary School, which has a history of almost 140 years, have been discussed in the public space for several weeks. At the meeting, Council member Edmundas Razvicks said that this is being done as a matter of urgency, without looking for other solutions, there is a lack of information on how schoolchildren from Sasnava will be transported to other schools, what will happen to the teachers who worked in this school.
Nerijus Mašalaitis, head of the department of education, culture and sports, explained that until now about 1,200 schoolchildren have been transported in the territory of the municipality and it will not be a problem to transport a few dozen more. According to him, there was no rush, the reorganization was discussed since the beginning of February. The teachers of this school were invited to meet with the specialists of the department, to consult about possible jobs, but the teachers from the Sasnava school were not interested in this, they did not come. The dismissed teachers were asked if it is possible to transfer their data to other educational institutions where there is a shortage of teachers, but this suggestion, according to the presenter, did not receive attention.
“Chickens, puppies and old people will remain in the village”
– Some of the school team members are already taking their children to study in Marijampolė. We are forced to close the school due to the provisions of the central government, and only chickens, puppies and old people will remain in the village, said Council member Gediminas Akelaitis.
Mayor Povilas Isoda emphasized several times that the most important thing is not the school building, but the children, and maintaining a school with so many students is simply impossible. According to him, it is not even worth talking about joint classes. In addition, when considering this year’s budget, the school was certainly not abused, 795,000 was allocated to it. euros.
Another question is why out of the 170 children who now live in the school area, only so many have attended the local school until now – maybe they were not satisfied with the quality of education or were there other reasons? Council member Irena Lunskienė also spoke about this: “If 59 out of 173 local children attended the Sasnava school, then various questions arise, why parents do not want to send their children to that school?” Maybe they are not satisfied with the infrastructure, the head of the school, the quality of education? These are very important questions.”
Council member Kęstas Spūdys proposed to move the Sasnava school to the Municipality Administration building, and the Municipality employees to Sasnava, but the mayor connected such a proposal with the full moon, which, according to him, constantly affects some Council members.
It was decided by the majority of 18 members of the Council until August 31 of this year. The primary school in Sasnava was reorganized by connecting it to the Anzelmos Matutis high school in Igliauka. Sasnava’s pre-school education department will be established there, which will implement pre-school and pre-school education programs. Also until August 31. the internal structure of Marijampolė “Ryto” primary school will be reorganized, discontinuing the implementation of part II of the basic education program (grades 9-10), and the type of school will change from a primary school to a pro-gymnasium.
Waste removal and handling become more expensive by almost 40 percent.
The meeting approved the maximum maintenance rates for apartment buildings in Marijampolė municipality. Residents of multi-apartment residential buildings will pay a higher monthly service fee to the administrator of common use objects for maintenance of the building.
The question of the amounts of fees for municipal waste collection and waste management also received a lot of discussion. It is clear that residents will have to pay significantly more for these services from April 1. The price increase is based on the fact that this year’s forecast is 36.3 percent. an increase in costs compared to 2022, when the amounts of fees for municipal waste collection and management were increased. If the rates are not increased, the operational loss of UAB Marijampolės district waste management center may reach around 1.7 million euros.
The director of this center, Irma Žiūkaitė, said that the costs of waste collection, the fee for waste incineration, and property insurance costs have increased, so it is necessary to raise prices. Council members wondered why the price of the service is increasing by almost 40 percent, whether it could not be raised gradually, consistently, and not immediately so drastically, when one resident will have to pay EUR 0.94 more per month than before, two – EUR 1.88 more, for three – 2.81 EUR more, and for four and more, the service will cost 3.28 EUR per month. I. Žiūkaitė explained that the price needs to be coordinated with several other surrounding municipalities served by this company, which is why it takes a lot of time.
New place names and new boroughs
The meeting approved the plan for determining and changing the boundaries of residential areas of the Municipality. According to it, the boundaries of residential areas are determined and the settlements of Mikalinė village in Marijampolė ward, Nendriai village in Liudvinavas ward, Pačtoriškė and Utalina villages not assigned to the wardships are abolished. The names of the residential areas of the Municipality are also being changed: in the Sasnava ward, Nedėldarzis village to Nedėlberzis village, in Sasnava ward – Vinčui railway station to Vinčui village, in Igliaukas ward – Igliauka village to Igliauka town.
From June 30 of this year Gudelii, Marijampolė and Šunskė precincts are being abolished and new Mokolė and Patašinė precincts are being established from July 1. The newly established wards will be located in the building located on Lietuvininkų st. 18, Marijampole.
Mayor P. Isoda explained that these changes are made in order to partially equalize the population of the wards, because now there are several hundreds in one ward, and 5,000 in the other. Now there are 770 residents in the Gudelii ward. After connecting this ward to Igliauka, which has 1,800 inhabitants, their total number will exceed 2,500 and it will still be the smallest among the wardships, but its area will be one of the largest.
The unnamed street of the Mokolė village of the Šunskė ward of the municipality has been given the name Tiesiosios gatvė.
